West Coast Fun Part 1

I have sort become addicted (as I know many have) to using Facebook.  I have reconnected with so many of my firneds from the past, some form over 30 years ago!  I have also been pretty involved with my high school class - OAKTON 81!!!  In fact the day I'm writing this it's the actual 30 year anniversary of my high school graduation, boy do I feel old!  Two of my dearest friends on Facebook are Kim, who lives in Seattle and Stacy who lives just outside of Sacramento.  Early in 2009 I had reconnected with Stacy and met up with her while she had a long layover at Dulles on her way from West Virginia back home.  I had said that if there was some way I really wanted to visit her out west, Sacramento is a place I had never been and it is home to a number of DDD places and also is home to Guy's two restaurant chains; "Tex Wasabis" and "Johnny Garlics".  My plan was to take a few days off and go out to Sacramento and then drive into the Napa ans Somoma Valleys to try a few places and visit with my Cousin Ralph, who lives in Santa Rosa, which coincidentally is Guy Fieri's hometown!  As I started planning I decided to make an additional stop in Seattle to try a few places there and hopefully reconnect with Kim, too.  I had been planning to fly out the day after Labor Day, but as it got closer it seemed that I might be able to leave two days earlier and my supervisor OKs it as the loads and flight totals at work were lite due to the holiday, so I took the nonstop on Labor Day Sunday to Sacramento.  I had already made arrangements to see Stacy on the Tuesday and due to her schedule she was busy Labor Day, so I had an extra couple of days to see the area before heading to Ralph's on Wednesday.  After checking in at the hotel (in an amazing coincidence because I flew in on a Sunday, both the hotel and car rental rates went down - big time!).  I decided that even though I was already planning to meet Stacy at Tex Wasabis on Tuesday that I would go over there and not only see where it was but give it a preview.  As I previously wrote, Tex Wasabi's is one of Guy's two restaurant chains and it features the fusion menus of barbecue and sushi!  The one dish that got Guy on the Food Network and one that he had featured on his Best of DDD show was something called "Jackass Sushi", just by the name I had to try it out!  It is really not sushi at all except it has sushi paper and rice and is presented in a sushi style.  the main ingredients are the rice, barbecue pork, avocado and a spicy mayo sauce.  Oh my word, this is one of the best meals I have ever had, I kept thinking "This is so good it should be illegal, I could gobble this up all night long, just keep'em coming!"  All of the places that I wanted to try were closed for Labor Day so I wasn't sure what to do with my time.  In the hotel lobby there was a sign for discounted tickets to the California State Fair and the fairgrounds were only about 2 miles away, so I bought a ticket and did that for labor Day.  The state fair is a really cool operation, it has an amusement parka dn water park built into it and has all the friend foods that make a state fair popular and the midway, but the park of the fair that I found the most interesting were these buildings that featured alot of the different counties of California, especially the agricultural counties in the center of the state, if you are in the Sacramento area in August, I highly recommend spending a day at the fair.  The next day I started the day at the "Squeeze Inn" which is famous for it's burgers and tacos covered in cheese.  The Squeeze with Cheese literally has a quarter pound of cheese melted on the quarter pound burger.  The molten cheese hangs off the burger in what is called the "cheese skirt".  Since I am not a fan of burnt cheese I got the taco and it had a healthy portion of cheese on it, too..  The chef who cooked with Guy was there holding court in a tiny restaurant that does a huge business.  After finishing I went to an area called Old Sacramento to visit the California Railroad Museum.  If you have even the slightest interest in trains, or better yet, seen a train or really even heard the word train, this place is a must!  Great displays and hands-on exhibits are worth the price of admission.  The musuem is located in an area called Old Sacramento and is made up to be a turn of the century (20th century) western town with dirt streets and a real western motif, it looks like a lot of fun.  I then stopped at "Jamies Bar and Grille", the thing about Jamie's is there is no sign and just a plain brown door.  It's easy to miss and if you miss it then you are missing a place that has great steak sandwiches, I had Jamie sign my book and it's a place that I would love to go to again.  I met up with Stacy at Tex Wasabis and we tried a few different type of what Guy likes to call "Gringo Sushi" which the Jackass Roll is one.  Her friend came by for a brief stopover before going onto something else and while they said that they like regular sushi they really enjoyed the Jackass Roll, which just made me know that even Sushi purists would like Tex Wasabis!  The next morning I wanted to try one more place before heading to Ralph's in Santa Rosa.  I went to a place called "Cafe Rolle".  The owner and chef is William Rolle who has only been in the USA for a few years from his native France, where his parents ran a French Deli.  On the show, William and Guy had a great time, with William matching Guy joke for joke and singing and carrying on.  I thought to myself as I watched it that it was just an act for the camera.  I arrived at the cafe as it opened and got the sandwich of the day and there behind the counter was William.  He was singing and being just as he was on the show and there was only myself and a woman in the cafe and I had not yet told him why I was in cafe, he was genuinely  the same on camera as off!  On the show he told Guy to cook this one dish for "13 minutes, not 14, not 12 but for 13!" in his strong French accent, so that is exactly what he wrote in my book.  I really liked William and the sandwich was goo, but what's the deal...no ice in the water!....Well, it's onto the Wine Country.......